Monday, August 8, 2011

Drug reps confuse me

Drug reps visit our office often. They tell us all kinds of things about their product in the hope that the doctors will prescribe it. Some of it may even be true.

Last week, the rep for Meltthevoices came to visit. As far as antipsychotic drugs go, it's pretty effective, and comparatively cheap. (Only seven hundred dollars a month!) Unfortunately, the people at MegaDrugs who designed it didn't think the design process through completely. The concept that if you're going to have a medicine taken by dissolving under the tongue you may want to think about how it tastes apparently never crossed the creators' minds. Within six months of FDA approval, the company nearly stopped making it because the patient reaction to the taste was so negative.

So I asked the drug rep about this.

"I got so many complaints about the taste that I even tried a small sliver of a 5mg tablet to see what they were talking about--and it was really bad--"

"Well, yes, but I took it at bedtime and didn't have anything planned for the next day in case it made me too sleepy to do anything." He abruptly remembered his spiel. "And that's why it now comes in MegaBerry flavor!"

GoodbyeNurse raised an eyebrow inquiringly.

The drug rep sighed. "Yes, I tried it too. It's definitely an overpowering fruity berry flavor, but it's way better than the original."

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